UNVEILING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES POTENTIALS OF HOMESTEAD AGROFORESTS OF NORTHERN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Homestead agroforests with diverse plants have the potential to generate ecosystem services. The aim of the study was to investigate the above-ground biomass (AGB), above ground carbon (AGC), and soil organic carbon (SOC) and its driving factors. The study was conducted in the homestead forests of Panchagarh districts in Northern Bangladesh. A stratified sampling method was applied to collect socioeconomic information, vegetation and soil sample data. A total of 104 households were surveyed for data collection. The socioeconomic conditions of the homesteads were collected by semi-structured questionnaire; vegetation information and soil samples (0-30cm depth) were collected from a 20m × 20m quadrants laid in the homestead. The socioeconomic results revealed that the maximum number of respondents were middle- and old-age, with small families possessing secondary-level education. The respondents belong to the marginal farm size (43.4%) category of the low-income (59.6%) category. The maximum households had four decades of conventional and agroforestry farming experience. The mean AGB and AGC of the study area were 27and 10.78Mgha-1. The respondents mentioned that the percentage of provisioning, regulating, and cultural service supply was 34%, 36%, and 30%, respectively. The problem finding index (PFI) revealed that the major problems faced by the households were lack of training on managing homegardens (PFI-289.4) followed by the attack of insects, pest and diseases (PFI-282.7). In case of soil composition, SOC, SOM and TN were 2.19%, 3.78% and 0.28% while TP and TK were 89.80μg/g and 1.24 meq/100g of soil.AGC was positively correlated with tree height and DBH while negatively correlated with soil pH. Finally, it might be concluded that the homegarden agroforests have the potential to mitigate climate change effect by sequestering atmospheric carbon and supply ecosystem services for the communities around the World.